'Serial Shooter' suspect admits lying to police

Feb. 5, 2009 11:16 PMAssociated Press

The main suspect in metro Phoenix's "Serial Shooter" case admitted Thursday that he lied to investigators about where he threw away one of his guns and admitted to inconsistencies in his account of an encounter with a victim in the attacks.

Dale Hausner said the shop where he bought his .22-caliber rifle wouldn't let him return it after it kept jamming, so he threw it away.

Investigators say they have linked .22-caliber shell casings from some of the attacks to casings found in Hausner's car.

In a 2006 police interview, Hausner had said he threw the rifle away in a trash bin in west Phoenix.

But he said at his murder trial Thursday that he sawed the gun in half and dumped the remains of the weapon in two trash bins - one at a location in Phoenix, the other in Mesa.

Hausner is on trial on charges of killing eight people and attacking 20 others but has denied any involvement in the attacks. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against Hausner if he is convicted.

Prosecutors say Hausner randomly attacked people and animals from his car in a conspiracy that occasionally included his brother, Jeff Hausner, and his roommate, Samuel Dieteman.

The dozens of shootings between 2005 and 2006 terrorized the Valley as pedestrians and bicyclists traveling alone were preyed upon.

Hausner said he sawed in half and threw away his .22-caliber rifle because he didn't want it to be used by someone else in a crime and denied that his disposal of the gun was intended to hide it from investigators.

Vince Imbordino, the prosecutor, asked Hausner to resolve the conflict in his accounts of the rifle's disposal.

Hausner also provided jurors an account of his encounter with James Hodge, who was wounded by a shotgun blast May 30, 2006, near Hausner's brother's apartment in west Phoenix.

Hausner, who denied any part in the shooting, testified that he stumbled upon the victim when he was looking for a lost cat.

A month ago, Hausner's former roommate told jurors that Hausner shot Hodge from his car and that the two returned to the scene and told police they were looking for a lost cat, which Hausner said he had given to his brother.

Hausner told jurors that he did nothing more than look for the cat and that he and Dieteman came across Hodge in their search for the animal. Hausner said he stuck around the scene to talk to a police officer.

In his 2006 police interview, Hausner told a detective that he had slept at his brother's apartment after discovering Hodge and that the cat was eventually found.

But in court Thursday, Hausner said he didn't mean to say that and had in fact spent the night at his own apartment in Mesa and that the cat had actually been mauled by dogs.

"You realized it? Or you changed your story?" Imbordino asked.

"I realized it," Hausner answered.

Hausner, who spent four days this week on the witness stand in his own defense, was expected to wrap up his testimony on Monday or Tuesday.